When the time to start filming for “Black Panther: Wakanda Eternally” rolled around in 2020, the very first thing director Ryan Coogler did was take the film’s solid and crew to go to Chadwick Boseman’s gravesite. 

“Something magical happened there,” said Camille Friend, lead hairstylist for the “Black Panther” film series. “We got to wish and dance and sing, there have been drummers — I feel that moment healed everybody’s heart and allowed us to be like, ‘OK, we’re going to make ‘Wakanda Eternally’ — we’re going to do that for Chadwick.’”

Boseman, who passed away in August 2020 resulting from stage-four colon cancer, played the titular role of the Black Panther, or T’Challah, within the series’ first film, which premiered in 2018. 

Landing in theaters this Friday, the second film depicts the people of fictional east African land, Wakanda, picking up the pieces following the lack of their king, with the trailer hinting on the rise of a latest, female Black Panther. 

“The very first thing me and Ryan [Coogler] began talking about was Shuri and Ramonda,” said Friend of T’Challah’s sister and mother, played by Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett, respectively. “His thought was that they might have shaved their heads in mourning of T’Challah dying.” 

To suggest the characters’ grieving, Friend and Coogler ultimately selected shorter hair for each, with Shuri sporting a curly, high-top fade and Ramonda bidding adieu to her long, silver-gray locs. 

“With Nakia, who’s played by Lupita [Nyong’o], I knew her hair was going to vary because she had left Wakanda, had come into her own and was living in Haiti,” said Friend, who added locs to Nakia’s signature red hair, which was styled in bantu knots — which Friend coined as “Wakanda knots” — in the primary film. 

“A variety of aspects went into determining the design this time around — we desired to reveal the passage of time, and the way each character would have evolved for the reason that first film,” said Friend, who’s the multicultural hair care brand influencer for Procter & Gamble’s natural and curly hair care brands, My Black Is Beautiful and Gold Series. 

When she joined the primary movie, Friend had no idea the resounding cultural impact it might have. It wasn’t until her Instagram DMs began blowing up following initial press screenings, and much more once the film was released to the general public, that she realized the importance of the film. 

“You never know what form of impact a movie goes to make,” said Friend. “’Black Panther’ was a pleasing surprise — all I knew then was that I used to be a Black woman, and I told Ryan Coogler we is not going to be using any curling irons, we’re going to do it all-natural, and he was like, ‘Go for it.’”

In her creative direction for “Wakanda Eternally,” Friend sought to proceed combining historical African inspirations — similar to Senegalese warriors, whom the film’s Jabari tribe was loosely based on — with experimental, futuristic stylings to bring the influence of the primary film to latest heights. 

“I don’t have any superhero powers, but I do know I’m a superhero since it’s how I walk — it’s how I talk and what I bring forth,” said Friend, for whom essentially the most meaningful impact of “Black Panther” was showing Black people, through all of the film’s world-building, futuristic wonders and depictions of Black excellence, that they’ll break freed from limitations placed upon them by others. 

“I really like when people send me pictures of their children at Halloween, and so they need to be Nakia or the Black Panther. That representation that happens in ‘Black Panther’ is so essential because when children and folks see themselves in movies, they think, ‘I can do this — I may be that.’” 

It is that this mission that united Friend with hair care brands My Black Is Beautiful and Gold Series, with whom the hairstylist has teamed to launch limited-edition “Black Panther: Wakanda Eternally” product packs now available at Goal, Walmart and Kroger. 

“What makes this partnership so amazing is that you would be able to’t be more Black, and more Black joy, than what Black Panther is,” said Lela Coffey, vp of North American hair care and multicultural hair brands at Procter & Gamble. 

The specialty pack containing products from My Black Is Beautiful’s Golden Milk Collection retails for $19.99, while the Gold Series Core Collection pack costs $10.99, each catering to the needs of natural and curly hair. 

With My Black Is Beautiful striving to bring Black joy to the fore, and Gold Series having been formulated by Black scientists, the brands found a natural synergy with Camille’s purpose and the “Black Panther” realm. 

“What’s great about ‘Black Panther’ shouldn’t be just that it’s a Marvel movie — it’s a probability for young Black men and ladies to see themselves as kings and queens on the massive screen, doing things that aren’t the standard lived experience that many individuals take into consideration Black people,” said Coffey.

“To me, ‘Wakanda Eternally’ is even higher than the primary film,” said Friend. “I would like people to know and feel that our hair is gorgeous, nonetheless you wear it. I don’t care if it’s straight, natural, in the event you wear a weave or wig — whatever you do, I would like you to know that you just’re beautiful.”